DuPage father sentenced to 100 years in death of 8-year-old daughter
In one of the suburbs' most haunting murders, a Clarendon Hills father pleaded guilty, but mentally ill, to the murder of his 8-year-old daughter. He was sentenced to 100 years in prison.
Prosecutors dropped their intention to seek the death penalty against Neil J. Lofquist, who suffers from schizophrenia, his lawyers said. The plea ensures Lofquist will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Lofquist, 44, admitted choking Lauren, an inquisitive green-eyed second-grader, in her bed and later stabbing her in the neck while her head was submerged in a bathroom toilet on March 26, 2006.
The child's heartbroken mother, Lisa Willson, who ended her 16-year-old marriage after the tragedy and is raising the former couple's young son, read an emotional statement in DuPage Circuit Judge Blanche Hill Fawell's packed courtroom.
"As a mother, there are no words adequate enough to express the agony and pain I have suffered through the loss of Lauren," she said, struggling through tears. "To have someone within my own family, someone I vowed to love, honor and cherish, commit such a horrific act against his own flesh and blood is unimaginable.
"Not in a million years would I have thought a crime of this sort could ever happen to my family. The things in life I valued, like family, trust, stability, and security, were shattered by the selfish acts of one person."
The night of the murder, Lisa Willson took her husband to Adventist Hinsdale Hospital because he had a minor cut and was acting erratically. A neighbor, Andrea Wiley, came to the home on Chicago Avenue to watch Lauren after the couple and their son went to the hospital.
Prosecutors Tim Diamond and Joseph Ruggiero said Lisa called home shortly later to check on Lauren after her husband had told hospital personnel that he killed her.
Wiley, with the cordless phone clasped in her hand, found Lauren on her knees in the bathroom. Attempts to resuscitated Lauren were unsuccessful.
Ruggiero said the father confessed in lengthy videotaped interviews to killing Lauren to save mankind because a religious prophet told him that the child was the devil and the world would otherwise come to an end.
Lofquist denies molesting Lauren, but prosecutors maintain he earlier admitted raping her twice. The father's DNA also was found in Lauren's fingernail scrapings, Ruggiero said, matching a scratch on his buttocks.
Neil Lofquist did not have a documented history of criminal or mental health problems, but family members have reported he displayed a pattern of progressively paranoid behavior in the two months leading up to the murder.
He also made an unsuccessful suicide attempt in jail June 26, 2006, by diving head first off a weight machine.
His defense team, Jeff York, Jacqueline Lacy and Robert Miller, argue Lofquist is mentally ill but that an insanity defense would have been an uphill battle at trial because experts didn't agree he was insane.
"He's certainly schizophrenic," York said. "I think the medication has been incredibly helpful as to his understanding of the court proceedings."
Neil Lofquist declined a chance to make a public statement in court. His attorneys said he is heavily medicated.